i don't want to eat a vegetable.

Here's one of my struggles:  I'm a vegetarian who doesn't really love vegetables.  I love food that is easy to eat - things that fit in a toaster, cereal, yogurt, fruit, nuts. Most of my entrees come out of the microwave.  I once made dinner for a friend that consisted of cheetos, grape cool-aid and mac & cheese...and that actually took some effort to pull together.

When I first got married, i tried cooking for Daryl, at least once or twice a week.  But, i soon realized that, while he makes happy sounds when eating his own cooking (apparently his stomach and his mouth are having a little party in there), no such noises come from him when he eats my food.  He says thank you and is nice about it, but there is no dancing going on in that skinny body anywhere...

So, here's my issue with the vegetables:  they are not easy to eat, and they require some cooking ability, which i clearly do not have.  Frozen corn and pre-cut carrots are totally in.  Eggplant?  I love to eat it when the man at the Thai restaurant makes it, but at home, it turns into some black sludgy stuff in my refrigerator.

I also don't really understand them. I once went to the store to buy some type of lettuce thing, and had to ask for help...the produce guy picked up a bunch, shook it, smelled it & then told me it was good.  I asked him what shaking it did, thinking it made the smell come out or that it emitted a special ripe-indicating noise or something.  He gave me the look and said, "To get the water off of it."  (Here's your sign.)  I seriously have no idea what jicama looks like before it has been cut into rectangles. I'd ask the produce guy, but i don't want to get the look again.

This vegetable phobia has made it slightly hard to get good nutrition in.  When I eat in the cafeteria at work, i brave their green stuff, mostly because someone else has cooked it.  But, now, i'm in a fitness show-down with a friend from work who is NOT scared of vegetables.  And, i need to somehow trick myself into eating more of these things so that i can win the coveted title of...well, we haven't really come up with a title.  But, i wouldn't mind if he started calling me Princess Energy or something.

So, here is my plan.  I'm writing it down to force some accountability here, since Daryl will read this and hopefully give me a convicting look when he sees there is a pop-tart in my hand instead of a cucumber.

These are the vegetables i think i can handle eating at home: carrots, salad, corn, edamame (that counts), asparagus out of the can (sodium rinsed off), the easy to microwave frozen veggie combos, cucumbers. And, if i can ever find out what a jicama is, i might actually buy one.  (Or, is it ones? some? a bunch?)

At work/restaurants:  Real asparagus, broccoli, eggplant, + all the above.

Goal: 3.5/day (i couldn't decide btwn 3 & 4). 

Not very adventurous or ambitious, but my goal is to eat more greenish things, not to gag.  Wish me luck = p